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Installing In a New Light 

By Angela Fuller, Assistant Registrar/Curatorial Assistant

In preparation for the Taft Museum of Art's Bicentennial Infrastructure Project, Taft staff moved nearly 500 artworks, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and decorative arts objects, out of the permanent collection galleries in the historic house over the course of six weeks. Our team consisted of four collections department staff members, four professional art handlers, plus four Taft employees cross-trained from other museum departments. We installed over 80 objects in the Taft's Fifth Third Gallery for the exhibition In a New Light: Treasures from the Taft, transported nearly 50 pieces to the Cincinnati Museum Center for Borrowed Gems from the Taft Museum of Art with the help of a professional art shipper, and packed the remainder to be stored off view for the duration of the project. Click on each photo for the full story of what went on behind the scenes!

We packed 42 watches in archival boxes that were designed for preserving antique holiday ornaments. One perk of working on the collections team is the opportunity to experience artwork up close such as with this watch depicting the Judgement of Paris, an episode drawn from Greek mythology.
The crew takes down Thomas Gainsborough's "Edward and William Tomkinson" from the walls of Taft historic house.
The crew takes down Thomas Gainsborough's "Edward and William Tomkinson" from the wall of the Music Room. With its frame over 90 inches tall, this is the museum's largest painting, apart from Robert S. Duncanson's murals painted directly on the walls of the Duncanson Foyer. Once the painting was off the wall, we placed it sideways on a cart and rolled it down the hallway to Fifth Third Gallery.
The team moves the couch from the historic house to Fifth Third Gallery
This exhibition is the first to feature furniture from the Taft collection. Unwieldy pieces of furniture were among the most challenging objects to transport from the Taft historic house into Fifth Third Gallery. Moving this early-nineteenth-century sofa required strength, strategically placed dollies, and rubber cups underneath the sofa's casters to prevent it from rolling off the dollies while in motion.
Art handlers moving decorative porcelain vase from fireplace mantel and relocating it to Fifth Third Gallery
Art handlers took great care in moving decorative arts objects as well, including this porcelain vase, lifting it from a fireplace mantel in the Music Room to relocate it to the Fifth Third Gallery. Once in place for the exhibition, we applied small dots of a sticky polymer underneath several large vases to prevent tipping. Specialized brackets are screwed into the wall to provide additional stability for a few large vases.

The Taft's team of dedicated registrars, preparators, and art handlers aims to ensure that by an exhibition's opening day, our efforts are mostly invisible, leaving the artwork to shine. 

Angela Fuller, Assistant Curator

About the author

Angela Fuller, Assistant Curator

As the Taft Museum of Art’s assistant curator, Angela Fuller is involved in planning the museum’s temporary exhibitions as well as research and interpretation of the permanent collection. She has curated several exhibitions at the Taft, most recently Built to Last: The Taft Historic House at 200. Angela earned a BA in art history and a BFA in studio art at the University of Louisville in 2011, then completed a master’s degree in art history and museum studies at Case Western Reserve University in 2013. She interned at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art before joining the Taft in 2016. Angela lives in Northern Kentucky with her husband, two kiddos, and their miniature dachshund.

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